influences of solution chemistry on phenol removal from aqueous environments by electrocoagulation process using aluminum electrodes

background this study demonstrates the removal efficiency of phenol from aqueous solutions by electrocoagulation process using aluminum electrodes and also investigates solution chemistry and polymeric natural organic matters on removal efficiency objectives: the main aim of this work was to focus on the removal of phenol by electrocoagulation process using aluminum electrodes. materials and methods: this study was conducted in a bench scale. the plexiglas cell was employed as an electrolytic reactor with dimensions of 12cm× 12cm × 16cm and a working volume of about 1.5 l was used to conduct the experiments, and a magnetic stirrer was applied for mixing (200rpm). concentrations of phenol were determined by spectrophotometer according to the analysis of the color resulted from the reaction of phenol with 4-aminoantipyrine at 500 nm. alginate was selected as a model of polymeric natural organic matter (pnom). results the results showed that optimum ph was 7 for the phenol removal. the highest removal rate was observed 91% for 25 ma/cm2 of the current intensity. changes of ionic content (from 0.5 to2 mg/l) lead to an increase of the removal efficiency from 63% to 92%. the removal rate hasdecreased with increasing the initial phenol concentration. adding alginate in the solution decreased the removal efficiency from 82% to 61%. conclusions: according to the results of this paper, electrocoagulation process by using aluminum electrodes is a promising process for decontamination of wastewaters containing high concentrations of phenol.